An Interview with Mohamed Bugi: BY Sabiha Ashraf:
'Published in 'The Herald', October 1980.'
'Eyes to See, Eyes to Heal.'
“Green brown blue -those eyes are beautiful but those eyes can hardly see. A lot of the Kailash are blind or nearly blind.”
Pakistan, Chitral Valley.
Autumn is a time to pick walnuts & grapes. Stone age implements coax oil out of some of the walnuts. The rest are stored away for winter. The winter too is the wine. Stone crushed from the grapes. Before the white of the winter blots out the warmth of these fruit laden autumn days, is 'a happy time for all'. "Even the little children get drunk."
Ancient Greece? another time another place. No. The time is now & the place right here, in Pakistan.
The fair skinned, light haired, light eyed people of the Chitral Valley in Pakistan may have Greek blood in them but that's conjecture and there is no such authenticated information regarding their origins.
People however, continue to be fascinated by the Kailash. Over the years I had heard several people, mostly foreigners, talk about the enchanting valleys -seen glimpses of the place through magazines, brochures & films. Some tow decades back, my own brother, a movie cameraman had been up there & back with memories of his trip -on celluloid.
And now, years later, scattered on the floor for me to see, were memories' of another trip. These were far more fascinating than anything I had seen earlier.
These sketches and paintings were not of the Kailash but done by them. A few of them were of the Kalash and their surroundings done by Bugi and there were some done by Bugi's non-Kalash friends he had made up there -foreigners & Pakistanis. There was a very nicely done sketch of a hotel done by a Chitrali working in the registration office in Chitral but most of the paintings were by Kalash children with one or two done by Kalash adults. I found it strange and chilling to look through the eyes of Kalash children at their environment in their peculiar fashion" said Bugi. These children had never been given paint or paper before. For them, it was an exciting experience and I was starting to look at things their way. For instance, the landscape that I did of mountains for a child and that done by him were vastly different. "I was used to looking at mountains from the ground up. He was used to looking at ranges of mountains tops from the top down -it was like an abstract bird's eye view".
Mohamad Bugi, a young Pakistani commercial artist cum interior decorator cum painter had brought back to Karachi this treasure from the valleys, rolled up in a genuine Ka
lash goatskin bag.
Page 22 The Herald October 1980.
As far as I know, he is the first Pakistani painter to have gone up there to bring back, not just one work, but something done by the Kailash themselves. For three flower fresh laden fruit months from April to August, Bugi had lived with the Kailash not as a gaping spectator but as an enthusiastic sympathetic fellow human being seeking not to question their morals but to understand their mores.
He had come back to Kailash before the start of the light-hearted, merry-making phool festival of the Kailash so he couldn't have been high on Valley grape wine. But he was intoxicated. Heady with the beauty of the place and sad because of the plight of the Kailash people. Said Bugi "they are a beautiful people. Their women have long necks, the most delicate wrists and long tapering fingers. I can describe to you in words but they are a beautiful people and hey are a truly child-like people. Innocent. They hardly have any crime amongst them. They have such few needs. Some things they have in abundance -like fruit. Such fruit! It's unbelievable. Other things they lack. Common salt for instance. The salt situating is not that bad now but just a few decades back thy had to sell one of their women for a bag of salt!
Once the Kalash were spread over an area which included the Hindu-kush mountains and valleys and spread from Nooristan of Afghanistan to Kohistan of Swat and Dir, from the Kabul River Valley to Badhakshara and Wakhan.
"That is the golden time remembered by the Kalash when there were good Kings like Bula Singh or Raja Vaii and Tirichmir smiled like a golden god upon the 'bountiful land'" . Tirichmir, Chitral's highest peak, still towers high but for the Kafirs, or the Kalash as they are more popularly known, the days are no longer so golden. Kafiristan is now confined to three valleys, Birir
, Bumburet and Rambur. And even in this restricted area they feel bounded. So harassed are they by unscrupulous exploiting outsiders that instead of three valleys they are willing to settle for just one where they can pursue their way of life in peace and privacy free from intrusions including attempts to convert them to a faith other than what they believe in. Quite a few have been converted into Muslims. Even without being converted, they are not an immoral people. They are a very peaceful people believing in a certain kind of democracy and brotherhood. Crime is unknown among them. They don't lie cheat or steal ….there are not very many of them, maybe 5,000 in all and they can hardly harm anyone by what they believe in or how they live, yet outsiders keep hounding them so much so that the Kalash are unwilling to sell their lands to non-Kalash people. They are afraid of the outsiders who are out for their fertile land or their beautiful women.”
It's very unlikely that the Kalash will get the valley that they desire -a valley free from prying eyes.
"People marvel at the eyes of the Kalash especially those of the women and children. They are beautiful green, brown, blue. What people don't realise is that these beautiful eyes can hardly see. A lot of the Kalash are blind or nearly blind. The smoke inside closed dwellings in Winter compounded with smoke from wood for cooking in all seasons, plus a total ignorance of hygiene is responsible for their bad eyes. Wherever I went, I met women asking for medicine. Medicine for their eyes or for their children's. It's pathetic."
"Next Spring, I plan to go up there again with some Doctors who may be willing to spend a few weeks there. I am trying to gather some donations in cash or kind to take some simple medicines to them. These people desperately need medical aid. They need someone to teach them simple rules of basic hygiene...."
The Kalash don't have a written dialect. Bugi has brought back with him a simple list of Kalash words -maybe someone can work out a written script for them. If only people were to stop looking at them as if they were animals in a zoo. If only they could.”
Page 23. The Herald October 1980.
Start trying to give them something useful for them. Take designing for instance. The Kalash are potentially good woodcarvers. But they are forgetting whatever skills they had.
